Breaking Down Point 8 of “Gender Ideology Harms Children”

Well folks, we’ve made it to the end of this hot mess that is being peddled as actual science. It looks like they’ve saved the most reprehensible point for last. As always I have done my best to use sources and citations that are accessible to all as opposed to those behind pay walls. Due to this, it does make things more difficult as many of the studies I have used in my own research for college classes that back up my points are behind those pay walls and inaccessible to most people.

Conditioning children into believing that a lifetime of chemical and surgical impersonation of the opposite sex is normal and healthful is child abuse.

Except as I’ve covered in all of the other points, no one is conditioning children into believing this. On top of that there is proof showing that allowing a child to figure out their gender on their own as opposed to enforcing the gender they were assigned at birth is better for their mental and overall health. While as I have stated before the study into gender on the side of natural science (and in many ways social science as well) is still in its proverbial infancy, this doesn’t mean we’re not seeing what is actually going on.

The discussions going on today are on the topic of raising a child who is gender expansive (when a person’s identity or behavior is broader than the commonly held definitions of gender and gender expression in one or more aspects of their life) as opposed to enforcing the narrower guidelines of gender that we expect within society. If you would like more information on gender expansive children and gender neutral or affirming parenting practices, check out the links here, here, here, here, and here.

We have already seen that to even be diagnosed as having gender dysphoria as a child one has to meet several criteria as well as be symptomatic for over six months. We have also seen that the majority of children who are diagnosed with gender dysphoria do in fact grow out of it as they figure out who they are, but there is still a large percentage of children who do not grow out of it.

Due to the strict enforcement of gender within the majority of society, there have been difficulties finding large enough sample sizes to meet the requirements of being a “good study”, but of the studies that have been done, we have seen several interesting points.

By allowing a child to explore and figure out who they are in a nurturing environment free of judgement, we see fewer instances of mental health issues associated with the child being gender expansive or even transgender. (For more reading check out here, here, and here)

Endorsing gender discordance as normal via public education and legal policies will confuse children and parents,

I have yet to meet a child who is “confused” due to having supportive parents or who have parents who are well educated on the topics of gender. What I have seen are children who hide who they are due to fear that they will not be accepted due to either their community or families viewing the discourse about gender as abnormal or “bad.” Education is necessary when it comes to complex topics such as gender, and unfortunately much of what we used to know about gender and gender identity was destroyed back during WWII (Further reading on the destruction of the Institut für Sexualwissenschaft here, here, here, here, here, here, here).

While the term transgender did first appear in print around 1965 in American English, transgender people have existed for far longer than that and across the globe in many different forms. Many of the cultures that recognized multiple genders or that were accepting of people we today would consider transgender were either wiped out or forced to conform to the views and status quo of those who came after them, such as the British and French colonizers as they moved about the world, but in the case of the US, you can read more about it here.

So unlike the story the ACP is trying to frame, gender is not something that is new to us, it is that it is coming back into light after being pushed under the proverbial rug that is “new.” While transgender people and non-binary people will never be the “majority” of the population, they are just as normal and common as a redheaded person or someone with green eyes.

leading more children to present to “gender clinics” where they will be given puberty-blocking drugs.

Again, CHILDREN are not given drugs of any form, they are observed and watched. Adolescents are the ones who MIGHT be put on puberty blockers if their doctor and therapist believe that would be the best course of action for the patient. Also a child can’t just walk into a “gender clinic” and ask for puberty blockers, nor can an adolescent. The dispensing of puberty blockers requires not only a doctor, but also the person has to meet the qualifications of gender dysphoria. If they are transgender but don’t have dysphoria, they won’t be going in for medical assistance of that sort. I’ve already discussed this several times.

This, in turn, virtually ensures that they will “choose” a lifetime of carcinogenic and otherwise toxic cross-sex hormones, and likely consider unnecessary surgical mutilation of their healthy body parts as young adults.

This is just scare mongering and hand wringing using points I’ve already debunked. On top of that, would one consider a preemptive mastectomy to be “unnecessary surgical mutilation”? What about a breast reduction for someone who is dealing with overly large breasts and it is affecting their health? Those breasts were perfectly healthy body parts, so what is the criteria for a legitimate medical procedure and an “unnecessary surgical mutilation” for these people?

Trans people don’t “choose” to be trans, they are trans. Providing education, reducing the stigma, and normalizing things such as pronoun usage, acceptance, and visibility will not suddenly make children become transgender. It will however allow those who are transgender to feel safe enough to get the medical help they might need.

The ACP has added another piece to their article titled “The bottom line” but it is nothing but a rehashing of their already debunked, incorrect, and flat out false claims, so I will not be covering it outside of this one line:

For this reason, the College maintains it is abusive to promote this ideology, first and foremost for the well-being of the gender dysphoric children themselves, and secondly, for all of their non-gender-discordant peers, many of whom will subsequently question their own gender identity, and face violations of their right to bodily privacy and safety.

Pushing false information and debunked medical “science” to further an agenda that has been shown to lead to higher rates of suicide and self harm in trans youth is abusive. Denying someone’s actual identity is abusive. Allowing a child to figure out who they are in a safe, controlled, and loving environment is the complete opposite of abusive.

A child who is gender expansive and open about who they are will not suddenly turn their other friends transgender, nor will it make them “question” their own gender identity. To claim this is the same as claiming that you can get HIV by holding hands with someone who is HIV+, as in it is an outright lie. If the child does question, then that is because they were already unsure and they feel safe enough to try to figure it out.

And I don’t even know where to begin on the whole “face violations of their right to bodily privacy and safety”, that came completely out of left field and was just…wtf?

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Published by Michea B

I am a trans man who hails from southern Oregon. I work as a freelance writer and photographer, as well as work as a volunteer activist. I create whimsical clay creations and make YouTube videos on social issues.
View all posts by Michea B